Exhibitors show their stuff - National Association of Record Merchandisers conference

Discount Store News, April 15, 1996

WASHINGTON - Despite all the controversy, this year's NARM was an upbeat show, particularly on the part of exhibitors, who arrived with a vast selection of new music-related products.

Storage in particular seemed to be booming. With more imaginative, even decorative approaches to what has been a lackluster category, vendors created excitement through all classes of retail.

Roundhouse Products of Santa Monica, Calif., made a particularly strong showing with high-end wood storage units, including an upholstered wood ottoman in maple or oak that is being tested in Bed Bath & Beyond, Linens'n Things and The Container Store, as well as at traditional music outlets.

The company also moved into a leatherette formulation that adds a sense of luxury to the portable market, long dominated by vinyl and mesh nylon. The product, about which Roundhouse was extremely mum, has a hand very similar to real leather and is far more durable than traditional vinyl products.

Former Laserline exec Jeff Magsitza, who joined Roundhouse earlier this year as vp of sales, said that response to higher-end, decorative storage products has been extremely encouraging and that many retailers plan to merchandise these products in home fashions and RTA departments, not in consumer electronics.

That's been the experience of Atlantic Products, which made a splash at the Consumer Electronics Show with its Elvis Presley licensed wall storage unit. The company also produces a multimedia storage tower that doubles as a lamp. That is now being merchandised by Wal-Mart in the lamp department, purchased by the lighting buyer. Future products, including a series of Beatles licensed goods (the Yellow Submarine design was particularly striking) will probably be merchandised in the decorative area as well, vp sales Don Dolliver said.

Case Logic introduced a three-ring binder approach to storage, as well as a new fanny pack with a rain hood to protect electronics in inclement weather or at the beach.

Beaux Merzon Inc. (BMI) introduced a new Case-It line of two-sided protectors with clean-room material in each side of each pocket, allowing owners to fit twice as many discs into the same space as in many competing products. The company also showed a 120-disc capacity CD Organizer album. A line of CD-ROM products is on the way. Other areas of interest: * A simple CD identification kit from CD-ID allows compact disc owners to apply an indestructible coded decal to the inner rim of the disc. A code number matches a separate inventory sheet, giving owners a chance to reclaim stolen CDs and to discourage the purchase of stolen goods by used CD stores. Random notches on each label make it virtually impossible to conceal the decal with a new number. The peggable kit comes with 25 labels for $7.95, and 100 additional labels for $15.99. * CD and cassette openers from CD Essentials replace kitchen knives, screwdrivers, razor blades and other inefficient means of stripping media of its shrinkwrapping. A simple $2.95 plastic device fits over the edge of a CD or cassette and with a simple tug makes a neat slit in the packaging without marring protective cases. * An ever-escalating offering of Grateful Dead-related merchandise from Smith/Alster, which just before the show named former Best Buy senior vp Jeff Abrams to the post of executive vp. The Dead collection is up to 300, items now (and occupies 8 ft. at Best Buy and other mass retailers). The latest products include kids apparel, with infant and layette products on the way. The company plans to add products based on other classic rock artists like The Doors, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. * Jingle Cats, the holiday mainstay, have been joined by Jingle Dogs for '96. The full-length CDs (two cats, one dog), which sprang from a recording, engineer's accidental taping of his cat "singing" along to a jingle, will be supplemented with posters and decorations this fall.

Of course, the main draw at NARM is always nonstop music from hot new up-and-coming artists.

Big Hate, from Atlanta, and Gravity Kills, from St. Louis, were the big winners in the alternative category, with the former, on Flip Records, creating a major buzz among attendees.

Betty, on Intersound, could have been constructed from demographic data to appeal strongly to mass market shoppers. A three-woman cabaret act with strong pop songwriting mixed with appealing humor (the band's slogan is "Serious Songwriters with Perfect Hair"), the new single "Impossibly Blue" and strong covers of familiar material like The Association's "Wendy" could create a lot of interest among Baby Boomers with in-store play.

Blockbuster talent performing on the bigger stages included k.d. lang, soprano Kathleen Battle, bluesman Buddy Guy, rocker Richard Marx, soul legends The Four Tops and The Temptations and country crooner Trisha Yearwood.